Prehistory and Protohistory

(1,127 words)

Paleolithic: Homo erectus and the associated lithic industry ("scree tools", so-called Olduvai) appear in East Africa about 2 million years BCE - about 500,000 years after the first appearance of hominids of the species Homo. H. erectus then seems to have spread beyond Africa in the course of approximately 200,000 years. The fossil find of Dmanisi (Georgia) is dated at 1.7 million years BCE. H. erectus should have reached Java (Indonesia) between 1.8 and 1.6 million years BCE, though the dating is still controversial. In the course of this expansion he presum…